October 23 2014.


Britain’s Stefan Murphy opened his account in the prestigious French Sand Championship at the weekend with a superb seventh overall in a field of over 140.

The ATVs R US Yamaha team rider was up against many of Europe’s top quad stars at the event at Berck-Sur-Mer, which was round one of five throughout the winter.

Murphy improved throughout the three motos scoring 12th, 10th and 8th places, with former European champion, Jeremie Warnia, winning all three of the 25-minute heats, each time ahead of Romain Couprie and Matthieu Ternynck.

He was the first ‘foreign’ rider after big-name Belgian sand specialists Auke Theuninck and Jan Vlaeymans could only score two good results out of three.

The solo race was won by Team Suzuki’s two-time world champion, Steve Ramon from Belgium.

“It was really enjoyable,” said Murphy, 24, from Oxfordshire. “The event was great, well organised with a massive crowd, and the quality of the racing was excellent. It was a real challenge, which is what I’m looking for.”

Murphy is taking it so seriously that he is off back to France this weekend to carry out suspension testing at the Dunkirk sand track before the second round next month.

“We made suspension changes throughout the day, but the track was getting rougher and rougher so it was hard to know what was working and what was not. By testing somewhere more consistent we can try and be more competitive for the next round.”

Round two is on December 13, which is a two-hour race on a sand track that runs through a forest at St Leger de Balson.

In January he will also spend a couple of weeks on the road taking in two rounds in the south west of France and basing himself in northern Spain in between to continue testing. The final round is at the famous Le Touquet race at the end of January 2015.

He also plans to compete in sand races in the UK over the coming months, including Barmouth and Weymouth, though he is unlikely to defend his Skegness Beach Race title, which he has won for the last two years, because of his congested calendar.

Championship details at www.courses-sur-sable.fr